Fourth Time A Charm: Union Joins Thompson

July 28, 1986|By Hanke Gratteau.

For the first time in his four bids for the state`s highest office, Gov. James R. Thompson has won the endorsement of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union that represents nearly 60,000 workers in Illinois.

The endorsement was viewed as a step toward winning the support of the Illinois AFL-CIO, which has a membership of about 1 million workers. Robert Gibson, president of the state AFL-CIO, said last week that he will urge the group`s executive committee, scheduled to meet Friday, to make an

unprecendented break with tradition and endorse Republican Thompson for re-election.

The AFSCME endorsement came Saturday during a meeting of 250 union members in Springfield at which both Thompson and his opponent, Adlai E. Stevenson III, appeared. AFSCME, one of the largest unions in the state, made no endorsement in the race between Thompson and Stevenson four years ago.

Citing three public employee collective bargaining bills signed by Thompson, union spokesman Hank Scheff said Sunday that members ``felt that his performance over the last four years earned our endorsement.``

``Those bills made public employees first class citizens in this state and that`s no small thing,`` Scheff said.

The latest contract between the state and union carries a wage increase in each of the next three years and provides the first comprehensive dental plan for state AFSCME employees.

Thompson told the union Saturday that he would direct the Illinois Department of Mental Health to avoid layoffs of union employees working in direct care by making cuts elsewhere to comply with his 3 percent cut in spending, Scheff said. Previously, Thompson`s budget director had said that as many as 200 mental health workers could be laid off because of budget cuts, speculation that some had said could endanger the union`s endorsement.

The union also endorsed incumbent Democratic candidates Neil F. Hartigan for attorney general and Roland W. Burris for comptroller; incumbent Republican candidate James Edgar for secretary of state; and Jerome Cosentino, the Democratic candidate for treasurer.

Stevenson, a Democrat who is planning to run on a third-party ticket, is attempting to block Thompson`s endorsement by the Illinois AFL-CIO, which has never endorsed a Republican candidate for governor. He sent an appeal to union officials last week blaming Thompson for the loss of manufactuirning jobs in Illinois and linking the governor to President Reagan`s economic policies.

In the 1982 race, Stevenson narrowly won federation support. But Gibson has said Stevenson`s standing with the union has been weakened in part by his decision to quit the Democratic ticket and organize a third party.